


The Summerland Group

by TheDameintheRaininMaine



Category: Legion (TV)
Genre: Ableist Language, Alternate Universe- No Powers, F/M, Gen, also inspired by Paprika and Sandman, but close, not quite a crossover with Inception, references to very subpar mental health care, shared dream therapy AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 01:17:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10843488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDameintheRaininMaine/pseuds/TheDameintheRaininMaine
Summary: David Haller was referred to the Summerland Group in hopes their unconventional techniques might soothe his troubled mind. They didn't quite know what they were getting into.





	The Summerland Group

They had called it the Summerland group. There was never much information on it available, a last ditch referral for patients to Oliver and Melanie Bird’s experimental and highly secretive brand of “shared dream therapy”. 

They never spoke of where they learned the technique, the careful dosages of drugs and selected beats and triggers. But for those sent to them, the gratitude for the ease it gave their troubled minds overwhelmed this. Many even stayed with the group, to help others. 

There was always the question of danger, but the potential for great good work was too overwhelming a goal. 

All of this came to an end when Melanie received the letter of referral for one David Haller. 

“What do the notes on him say?” Cary asks, taking the file. 

“Substance abuse, possible delusional disorder, they wanted to dry him out of the former before deciding on the latter ,”

 

Melanie nods. 

“And one suicide attempt. His medical hold just lifted.”

That gets her attention. 

“Aren’t you worried about…” Cary asks, trailing off. 

“What happened to Oliver has nothing to do with this”. Melanie replies firmly. 

“Syd’s insisted on coming with us”. 

“The same David?”

Cary nods. 

In the car, Syd shifts uncomfortably. It had been six months since she herself had left the Summerland complex, and as the serene countryside gave way to towns, her mind began to shift. 

“I hope you know what you’re getting into” she comments. 

“We have his file Syd.” 

Cary interrupts. 

“We were actually hoping you might be able to shed some light on it”. 

Syd shakes her head. 

“David was always...troubled. He would never talk much about his childhood. When I was still at University with him his drug use wasn’t too bad...but there would be days where it was like he was suddenly...gone. “

“Did he ever have hallucinations or delusions when you were there?”

Syd shook her head. 

When they get to the bus station, the nerves in her stomach have settled a bit. David comes off the bus, hair askew and with a twitch, but with the same smile she remembered. 

“Syd” he says when he sees her, and he moves in as if to hug her, before stopping himself. 

She wished he didn’t have to. 

“You look…” 

He nods. “Things got...bad after you left. It wasn’t you!, but….”

“Do you have your medical papers?” Melanie interrupts. 

David nods and hands over the folder. 

“Declared no long a danger to myself” a pause, “Or others! Though that one never really came up”. 

The twitch would almost be frightening were his face not so pinched. David always had a lightness to him, even in the bad times. It’s not gone, so much, as lost. 

When they’re riding back to the compound, David stares out the window. Syd asks him quietly. 

“Are you OK? What are you seeing?”

He ducks his head. 

“I don’t know anymore”. 

Most of the ride back is silent. 

When the four exit the car, it’s Kerry who greets them first, grabbing Cary by the hands. 

“Two hours” she says. 

“Two hours fifteen minutes” he corrects. 

“Want to play ping pong?” she asks, and they depart. 

“I’ll explain tonight” Syd whispers, before she’s pulled aside for dinner prep. 

Melanie shows David around the ground, and the dorms and where he can leave his meager luggage. He tells her he’s tired from the journey and would rather just go straight to bed. This is partially true. 

The bed seems too big and too soft. He’s restless, and unused to trying to sleep without medication, without personnel constantly making rounds. There’s all kinds of things in his room. He’d become used to having no things, nothing that could even conceivably be used to cause harm. There’s a rhythm, a rhyme, to night times in the crazy house. 

Which is likely why he doesn’t initially notice when Syd opens the doors and quietly slips in. 

“Are you supposed to be in here?” he asks. 

“This isn’t Steinson Hall, no one’s going to tell the RA on us, scoot over.”

He does, and she pushes the pillow between them. 

“The pillows are nicer here too”. 

They’re quiet for a moment. David has missed this, missed her, more than he could have ever believed, even before this whole mess. 

“How’s Amy?” Syd finally asks. 

“Getting married next year. It was going to be next month, but after….stuff they decided to put it off.”

“Good for her,” Syd replies. 

“Any word from your mom?”

David feels Syd shift beside him. 

“A note about my continuing health coverage, and a reminder that because of her I didn’t have to pay tuition. Guess she didn’t ever expect her only daughter to have a psychotic break in her last year of college because someone got drunk and forcibly made out with her at a party.”

“I thought it was just a panic attack?”

Syd rolls her eyes so hard he can practically feel it. 

“I doubt there’s much of a difference to her. I was just an inconvenience to her. It doesn’t matter to me anyway, I’m an adult, I have to live my life for me.”

“Syd, does this...dream therapy stuff, does it actually work, or did we just get sent out here to live with the quacks so the doctors wouldn’t have to deal with us anymore?”

“It’s amazing” Syd says, eyes wide, “It’s- hard to describe. Not even just the whole helping with our issues thing. The kind of power it gives you, it’s be unbelievable. Addicting even. I’ve even started painting again because of it. It completely changes the way you see the world.”

“So the Birds, they know what they’re doing?”

“Like any of our other doctors ever really did? The diagnosis they sent me here with said I had a “personality disorder not otherwise specified, or possibly some kind of autism”. I doubt Professor Edgerton back at the therapy group in University would have any idea what to do with Cary and Kerry”. 

“You said you would tell me what was up with them earlier, so can you?”

Syd laughs. 

“They wandered here on their own years ago. The whole “shared dream” thing that Melanie talked to you about inducing with drugs and other things? They could always do it. They helped her and Oliver learn about the process, they helped them learn to be apart without freaking out”. 

“Are they father and daughter?”

 

“They claim to be twins. The others just stopped questioning it.”

She yawns. 

“Try to sleep tonight, David. You’ll have to do it again in the morning. First thing probably, Melanie seems really interested in your case.”

David tries to sleep. But he knows too well what will come to his mind when he shuts his eyes. And he fears that the future may mean dragging the others in with it. 

Syd is correct it turns out, first thing the next morning after (an unusually arty) breakfast, Melanie brings him into the lab, where she introduces him properly to Cary, and to another man he hadn’t seen before who said his name was Ptomney. 

Melanie produces a metal device with electrodes, and Cary syringes and several vials of liquid.

“The PASIV, based on a similar design developed in Japan, when used in conjunction with specific sedatives, allow the users to access a shared dream state, with one user’s mind acting a primary conduit.”

She gestures to where Cary is preparing the sedatives, cleaning the area on David’s arm to inject, and then doing the same to her. David has to fight hard not to jump. Needles have rarely meant good things for him. 

“Today, it will just be the two of us, so we can get a better idea of what kind of technique may help you the most.”

She then points to Ptomney, is who also being hooked into the machine and prepped. 

“The technology can be used freely, allowing the users into whatever space the brain creates or, or a specific user, called the Architect, can create a new space for the others to inhabit. Due to the nature of our work here, today we are going to start off with something constructed, and your mind will fill it.”

She moves and sets a tone on the machine. 

“The music will act as a trigger to bring us back out. It’s on a timer today, only five minutes. It won’t feel like five minutes- time in the dream space does not work the same as it does in the real world. And just a warning- once you’re asleep, you’re unlikely to immediately remember any of this. The experience may be...disorienting.”

And on that encouraging note, David feels the world start to drift away. 

He hopes that it doesn’t go too badly.


End file.
